Sunday, August 24, 2008

The Olympic Closing Ceremonies are finishing up in Beijing as I write this. These whole three weeks have been quite an adventure, and I appreciate all of you who checked in on this blog from time to time and also read my stuff in the paper. The U.S. had a nice final day of the Olympics, winning gold-medal finals in both men's basketball and men's volleyball (see below for a description of the basketball game).

For those who wonder what I'm going to do next, I'll be starting a "Scott Says" blog within a couple of weeks after I get back from China. So look for that online at charlotteobserver.com. And I'll be up to my ears as usual in Panthers football, college sports, NASCAR, etc., writing 3-4 columns a week for the newspaper.

So my time in China is done. As the sign says, "Visit is over. If you would like to return, you have to buy tickets again." I took that picture at the Forbidden City near Tianamen Square on the way out, but it really applies to my whole visit at this point. If all goes well, the next time you read something I've written, it will have been composed inside the U.S. Yes!